The extraordinary new Wellness Center is scheduled to be finished before the summer of '08 - if the weather cooperates and there aren't any surprises in the phases of construction. The top floor is on the same level as the dining hall. The building is being built at the edge of the flat one flat up from the main field along the bottom of the valley - so that it's bottom floor, built into the hill and looking out across the lower flat toward Wildcat, will almost meet the level of the lower flat. In other words, you'll be able to enter the building from the lower field; or, for the health and infirmary (and dialysis) facilities, you'll enter from nearby the dining hall.
The main reception room on the upper level is named "The Alumni Reception Room." It will be a comfy, inviting waiting room. Just off the Alumni room will be the main nurse's office, and this is being named in memory of Joy White, who always craved a nice and big-enough space in which to dispense TLC.
The lower level will include a gorgeous new theatre - with bench-like tiered seating, a real stage, a real backstage area.... Very exciting. (We've never had this. The closest we came was years ago, when the lower floor of the girls' dining hall - now Geyer Hall - was called Conover English Hall and at the far end of it was built a stage, with a curtain, etc. But we haven't had that set up since the early 70s.)
The whole building is being named in honor of Paul Guenther, long-time chairman of the FV Board and for years an advocate of the idea that we urgently needed a new health facility.
Below are photographs taken in the past few days:
Here (below) is a photo of the construction site as seen from the dining hall area (on September 15):